The Venice Film Festival’s 2026 Horizons lineup includes new titles by Anuparna Roy, Rubaiyat Hossain and Phuttiphong Aroonpheng. The festival runs September 2-12.
Big Little Things (HK-US)
Dir. Michelle Zhou
Zhou’s feature debut is about a US-based Chinese woman who returns to Harbin for Chinese New Year. To shield her lesbian identity from her mother, she hires a boyfriend until the arrival of her girlfriend shatters the facade. The cast is led by Liang Cuishan from this year’s Berlinale title Shanghai Daughter and Sun Jialing. The film is produced by Three Dots Films, Zhou’s Los Angeles-based company with producer Yu Chun.
Contact: Fred Tsui, Moebius Entertainment
The Burning Giants (Thai-Fr-Sing-Tai-Neth)
Dir Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
Thai director Phuttiphong returns to Venice after his feature debut Manta Ray won Horizons’ best film award in 2018. His latest is set inside a smoky mountain forest, where an ethnic Karen man who longs to return home is arrested by rangers as they set out to burn his village and make way for a national park. The co-production is backed by Thailand’s Diversion alongside Singapore’s 13 Little Pictures, France’s Nord-Ouest Films and the Netherlands’ Sluizer Film Productions.
Contact: Lucky Number
Children Of The Monkey (It)
Dir. Tommaso Landucci
Arriving in Venice after picking up a series of development prizes, including the grand prize of 2023’s Sam Spiegel International Film Lab, Children Of The Monkey is the fiction debut (following 2021 documentary Caveman) of a writer/director who was Luca Guadagnino’s assistant director on A Bigger Splash. Produced by Lungta Film with Lebowski, Mosaicon Film and Rai Cinema, it stars Riccardo Scamarcio as a conflicted father who realises he prefers his athletic nephew to his own severely disabled son.
Contact: Giulia Casavecchia, PiperPlay
The City Of The Living (It)
Dir. Edoardo Gabbriellini
This is the fourth feature of Tuscan actor/director Gabbriellini, and is based on the horrific 2016 murder of a 23-year-old in a Roman apartment and the novel by Nicola Lagioia that it inspired. Rather than reconstruct the crime, the film shifts the focus to the human, cultural and emotional dynamics that lay behind it. Starring seasoned Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea alongside upcoming talent Emanuele Maria Di Stefano, the film will be released in Italy on October 1 by its co-producer Eagle Pictures.
Contact: Giulia Casavecchia, PiperPlay
The Color Of The Sun (Can-It-Japan)
Dir. Xavier Tera
Fashion photographer and commercials director Tera makes his feature directorial debut with a coming-of-age drama in English and Japanese. Production took place on the island of Okinawa and the story follows graduating high schoolers who confront issues raised by a new friend raised on the island’s US military bases. Newcomers Naoto Shimajiri, Daido, Ichiro Andre Castro and Yuma Taira star with West Mulholland. Producers are Twin Brains Films, MIA Film and Wise Pictures, with Jeremy O Harris and Shogen among the producers and former head of Paramount Vantage and Paramount’s film group John Lesher on board as executive producer.
Contact: The Pool Films
A Common Story (It)
Dir. Anna Foglietta
Writer/director Foglietta’s debut is one of four Italian premieres at Venice that also play Toronto this year. Alba Rohrwacher and Guido Caprino star in the story of two empty nesters who must cope with becoming a free and footloose couple again after the departure of their daughter. Due to be released by Bim in Italy on September 24, A Common Story is a co-production between HT Film, Indigo Film, Tenderstories and Blu One Lab production, with Rai Cinema and the participation of HBO Max.
Contact: True Colours
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (Gre-Ger-Fr)
Dir. Jacqueline Lentzou
Greek director Lentzou’s debut feature Moon, 66 Questions premiered in Berlin’s Encounters section in 2021, before going on an extended festival run. She first came to prominence with 2018 short Hector Malot: The Last Day Of The Year, which was awarded the Leica Cine discovery prize at Cannes, while other shorts have appeared in Berlin, Toronto and Locarno. A Day In The Life Of Jo, which has taken part in workshops such as TorinoFilmLab, is a coming-of-age drama following teenager Jo as she goes about an ordinary day unaware that it is the last day of her life.
Contact: Lucky Number
Diane In The Loop (Belg-Fr)
Dirs. Ann Sirot, Raphaël Balboni
Belgium-based directors Sirot and Balboni return with their third feature following 2020 debut Madly In Life and 2023 Cannes Critics’ Week premiere The (Ex)perience Of Love. Their latest is about the titular Diane who finds out her mother was raped years before giving birth to her and sets out to seek revenge, sparking tensions between the two women that reach a breaking point. Ninon Borsei and Sandrine Blancke star in the film, which is produced by Jean‑Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Les Films du Fleuve alongside Marianne Productions.
Contact: Pyramide
The Difficult Bride (Fr-Ban-Por-Nor-Ger)
Dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
This supernatural drama takes place at a beauty parlour in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, where a bride-to-be preparing for her wedding begins to lose control of her body. The cast is led by Zaineen Chowdhury Karim alongside Azmeri Haque Badhon, Rikita Nondine Shimu and Sunerah Kamal. It is Hossain’s fourth feature after Meherjaan (2011), Locarno selection Under Construction (2015) and Made In Bangladesh (2019), which premiered at Toronto and played at a number of other festivals. The producers are France’s Les Films de l’Apres-Midi, Portugal’s Midas Filmes, Bangladesh’s Khona Talkies, Norway’s Barentsfilm and Germany’s Tandem Production. The Difficult Bride marks the first time a feature from Bangladesh has been selected for Venice.
Contact: Films Boutique
Eklipse (Austria-It)
Dir. Manuel Wetscher
Austrian photographer and filmmaker Wetscher’s feature debut Eklipse follows two best friends working in a dairy in the Tyrolean Alps in 1999. When the father of one of them is admitted to hospital with “the gay disease”, he is confronted with rejection and his own family’s silence. Moritz Hohlrieder, Finley Brown, Hannes Perkmann, Lenz Moretti and Lisa Schützenberger lead the cast. It is produced by Austria’s Eutopiafilm, in co-production with Italy’s Albolina Film. Filmladen will release in Austria in spring 2027.
Contact: Films Boutique
Falling House (Iran-US-Ger)
Dir. Mohsen Gharaei
When a veteran prison guard who has been suspended for a grave mistake discovers his eldest daughter plans to leave Iran and become a model, he does everything he can to stop her. Iranian filmmaker Gharaei’s fourth feature boasts a team including The Voice Of Hind Rajab producer Odessa Rae, and Arrival and Hamnet composer Max Richter. Iranian producer Milad Khosravi of Seven Springs Pictures also has Ali Asgari’s A Bit Of Light in Competition, while executive producers include US stalwart Jon Kilik, who has worked with Robert Altman, Oliver Stone, Spike Lee and Alejandro G Iñarritu to name a few.
Contact: Paradise City Sales
The Girl With The Leica (It-Ger)
Dir. Alina Marazzi
The opening film of Horizons is a portrait of photojournalist Gerda Taro, who initially shared the pseudonym ‘Robert Capa’ with her working partner Endre Friedmann. While covering the Spanish Civil War at the age of 26, she became the first female photojournalist to be killed on the battlefield. Swiss Italian director Marazzi has worked mostly in documentary; here, she weaves archive footage into a dramatic feature that stars Emilia Schüle as the pioneering, politically motivated female artist and activist.
Contact: Fandango Sales
House Of The Wind (Cam-Fr-Belg-Benin-Saudi-Qat)
Dir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
After shorts including 2009’s Waramutsého! about the Rwandan genocide, Cameroonian filmmaker Yanghu steps into the feature space with a story of connection across generations. Living alone in the capital Yaoundé, octogenarian Josette tries to draw her children back from the west by encouraging them to build houses in Cameroon. But it is her unexpected bond with a woman from her neighbourhood that upends everything on which Josette has built her life. Filmed in Cameroon, backers on House Of The Wind include Qatar’s Doha Film Institute and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation.
Contact: Celluloid Dreams
Lovers In The Blue Night (India-US)
Dir. Anuparna Roy
After winning the Horizons award for best director in 2025 with Songs Of The Forgotten Trees, Roy returns with her second feature. Set on the margins of Mumbai, it follows the intertwining lives of four migrants that include a closeted gay husband, his wife who works in a bar, a thief and a pimp. Producers are Vikas Kumar and Sharib Khan of Khan & Kumar Media with co-producers Bibhanshu Rai and Romil Modi.
Contact: Khan & Kumar Media
Moolah (Fr)
Dir. Jérôme Pierrat
A struggling reporter of organised crime hopes to revive his career by tracking a cocaine trafficker and his unruly gang. He is drawn into danger as the criminals await a drug shipment near Marseille and the police begin to circle. Moolah is the debut feature for Pierrat, a French crime reporter and prolific author, who also stars. It is produced by Iconoclast, which backed Guillaume Canet’s 2026 Cannes title Karma and Tristan Seguela’s The Good Lawyer, which plays in this year’s new Venice Open section.
Contact: Iconoclast
Oasis (Ger-Austria)
Dir. Jannis Lenz
This is the fiction feature debut of German writer/director Lenz, whose 2017 short Wannabe won the prix Clermont-Ferrand and was nominated for a European Film Award, while his 2021 graduation documentary Soldat Ahmet premiered at Visions du Réel. Oasis centres on a school where the video of a student threatening his classmates goes viral, setting off a spiral of violence. Newcomer Florian Geisselmann stars alongside Godehard Giese, Anton Petzold and Mathilda Smidt.
Contact: Totem Films
Too Much Sugar (US)
Dir. Robert Greene
Greene’s documentary focuses on a father of six from Missouri in the American Midwest and his best friend, an aspiring rapper, as they set out to shoot a film about modern fatherhood that turns into a madcap year. Greene also produces with Bennett Elliott, Peter Kline and Alex Needles of World War Seven, and Robert Kolodny.
Contact: Jason Ishikawa, Cinetic Media
Until The Day Ends (Serb-Bulg-Slovenia-Montenegro)
Dir. Jelena Maksimovic
Serbian director Maksimovic’s fiction feature debut is a coming-of-age story set against Serbia’s student demonstrations. It centres on an anarchist student and a working-class youth who fall for each other, despite standing on opposite sides of the protests. The largely non-professional cast is led by Lena Trifunovic and Andrija Krivokapic. The project was developed through TorinoFilmLab, When East Meets West and Les Arcs Work in Progress. An editor by training, Maksimovic directed feature docs Taurunum Boy (2018) and Homelands (2020), which premiered at Cinéma du Réel and FID Marseille respectively.
Contact: Heretic
What Belongs To Others (Pol)
Dir. Grzegorz Debowski
Debowski’s second feature after 2023’s Next To Nothing, which debuted at Gdynia Polish Film Festival, follows Kasia, who survives by breaking into other people’s homes. On finding a man’s dead body, she decides to move into his apartment, learning more about his life and giving her strength to make changes in her own. The film was produced by Agnieszka Skalska for Poland’s Blue Onion, and supported by the Polish Film Institute.
Contact: New Europe Film Sales
Words by: Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Geoffrey Macnab, Lee Marshall, Thea Middleton, David Opie, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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